Mourners of woman who died in Texas jail grieve loss of a ‘courageous voice’

Family and friends of an Illinois woman found dead in a Texas jail are remembering her as a “courageous voice” on social justice. Hundreds attended Sandra Bland’s funeral Saturday near the Chicago suburb where she grew up. An autopsy released Friday found Bland used a plastic trash bag to hang herself three days after a confrontational traffic stop like the ones she railed against on social media. The 28-year-old woman’s family has questioned the findings, saying she was excited about starting a new job and wouldn’t have taken her own life. The Rev. Theresa Dear told reporters outside the DuPage African Methodist Episcopal Church that Bland should be celebrated for standing up for herself.

Sandy was a social activist. Social activists don’t take their own life, particularly in jail. It just doesn’t make sense.

Bland family attorney Cannon Lambert

Bland had been preparing to begin a job in Texas. Her death in jail after an altercation with a Texas trooper who stopped her for not signaling a lane change has been taken up by activists, who say the case is the latest example of racial bias and use of excessive force by U.S. law enforcement. After the incident escalated into an altercation between her and the white trooper, Bland was charged with assaulting an officer and taken to Waller County Jail. She and her family were working to come up with $5,000 bail, but on July 13, three days after her arrest, she was found hanging in a cell with a plastic trash bag around her neck.

Americas Sandra Bland